Do you remember January 30th, 2015?
I don’t either — but my guess is it was a complainingly hot day in ATX (because the only season we seem to have is Summer). The birds were probably chirping. And, everyone was most certainly talking about their new year’s resolutions and best year ever business goals.
Assuming that’s true, it explains why I sat down and wrote a blog article titled “Money Questions”.
Excuse my nostalgia for a moment…
In an effort to spark some writing inspiration I decided to go digging into some of my older content… I typically don’t regurgitate my old writings for two reasons:
1. I want to continuously create new and original content for you
2. Things change (and I change!). What I thought about money — and honestly life in general — has evolved over the years. As I’ve grown, how I teach money has grown too. And, I’ll venture to say that my content has gotten a hell of a lot better.
But — back to “repurposed” content (sounds better than regurgitated…)
As certain as I was then (2015), I’m even more certain today — that the reason I’m here (besides being mom to Kael and Macy) is to teach business owners three main things —
1. How to turn Income into Wealth
2. How to reverse engineer your business strategy to achieve desired personal wealth with purpose-driven business impact
3. How to develop a lucrative investment portfolio
All three for one reason: to have the life you wish for (that you design!). Have enough money to pay for it (that you build!). With a mind, body and soul that is healthy enough to relish it.
Notice I said I am certain. And I’m just as certain about my money method (CURBS) that enables you to design the life you want and teaches you how to build the financial resources to pay for it!
I wrote this passage 6 years ago as I was just getting started on this journey to teach my money philosophy. The questions I posed then are just as applicable today:
Blog Title: Money Questions
Date: January 30th, 2015
Read time: 2 min 56 second
Slightly edited*
…. As I proceed along the path of my journey in life and work, I continue to get more clarity about my purpose or my “why.”
I’m finding that the work I’ve been called to do is all about helping others live the good life they deserve — through financial empowerment.
I often phrase this as helping people become “money-savvy.”
What does that mean?
In my opinion, it means that (at the very minimum) everyone should be able to answer these questions:
Being able to answer the following questions (not just ponder, but answer) can radically change how your money story ends —
1) How much does it cost to live my good life?
Believe it or not, you can put a price tag on the life of your dreams. In fact, you should. Once you know what it will cost to live that good life, you can take steps to make it a reality.
2) What is my annual required minimum expense?
Forget about your good life for a moment. Forget about the little luxuries that make all that work worthwhile. Right now, all I want you to think about is the absolute must-pay expenses in your life. These are things like food, utilities, rent/mortgage, etc. I call this number your annual required minimum expense (or ARMe) and it’s important to understand so you can properly analyze your cash flow and so that you know how much to save up in case you lose your income. I recommend having 6 months ARMe.
3) What is my net worth?
“What am I worth?” is a big question. I just want you to think about the financial side of it for the moment. While most accountants will define net worth as the sum of your assets minus your liabilities, I take a different tack. I think of net worth as the income-producing assets (i.e. crypto, real estate, syndicates, whole life insurance, stocks, bonds, gold, oil & gas) you’ll use to support yourself if you lose your income.
Which brings us to…
4) … there are three parts to #4.
a) What does financial sovereignty (freedom) mean to you, conceptually?
b) When do you want to reach full financial sovereignty?
c) How much passive income do you want to live off of each year once hitting financial sovereignty?
Some people think “I want to have a million dollars at ‘retirement.’” That’s a fine goal, but I prefer to think about future planning in terms of the yearly income (as opposed to lump sum) you’d like to have when you deem yourself financially free (I don’t use the word retirement — more on that in another post.) At that point, you’ll be relying on the income-producing assets I mentioned above.
Most experts recommend pulling about 4% to 5% from these income-producing assets each year. So, if you have that 1mill, you can pull an income of about 50k per year. If that’s not enough per year, you’ll need to have more than 1mill invested. Make sense?
5) Where is my money going each month?
This is SO important! My CURBS™ system categorizes expenses into a series of buckets: Taxes, Wealth, Wellth, Lifestyle, Rainy-day, Education and Dreams. An important part of what I teach people is to understand how their money is currently being allocated to these expense buckets versus how it SHOULD be allocated to ensure their long-term financial sovereignty and abundance.
6) How much debt do I have? (And what’s my plan to pay it off?)
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A man in debt is so far a slave.” I believe this is true. It’s nearly impossible to true achieve financial sovereignty & freedom if you are in debt. And that’s why a cornerstone of my sexy cashflow system is the creation of a debt payoff plan. No matter how much debt you have, it IS possible to pay it off and in a reasonable period of time.
Oh and by the way, my method allows you to pay off debt WHILE investing. You don’t need to choose one or the other.
7) Am I prepared for the unexpected?
Do you have insurance? Do you have a rainy day fund? Being prepared for the unexpected is what protects us from financial ruin and lets us live a good life without the stress of uncertainty.
Trust me, I didn’t think I’d get sick and on my death bed in a matter of months. Taking me out of the game for years. Luckily I followed my own system then that I teach now.
I challenge you — sit down right now and answer all of these questions. You Can Do It!
This may all seem overwhelming, but I assure you that it is completely manageable. I can take you through it, step-by-step, if you’d like my help.
We can cover a lot of ground in one phone call.
If you’re ready to have these answers and want a holistic plan to support, let’s chat.
